Another Great Day

Our second Community Service Day today not only went off without a hitch, but it also reaffirmed that the students of Lynnville-Sully are well armed with a powerful sense of responsibility.  Responsibility to their school, their community and their families that is demonstrated by the instinctive response to the call to serve.  Regardless of the task that needs completed, LS students are willing to work hard and meet the responsibilities they are given.

The hopes and dreams of hosting community service time for students is that they see and learn to enjoy opportunities to serve.   If we build the instincts to enjoy the rewards of volunteerism, we hope to create citizens who continue to volunteer in their community throughout their adult life.  Our communities rely on volunteer firefighters, youth sports coaches, church leaders, city council and school board members to provide leadership and services that contribute greatly to our quality of life.  We also depend on civic organizations like the Lions, athletic boosters, academic boosters, businessmen's associations, and other numerous clubs or associations to enhance our lives.  Ultimately we as a community do not survive without the contributions of volunteers.

The staff of Lynnville-Sully did a fantastic job of organizing volunteer opportunities.  They also modeled strong volunteerism by working along side all the students.  In the end our 470 students and 50 staff members had both a local and a global impact.  Groups were out cleaning parks,  ball diamonds, ditches, the historical society, school facilities and lawns of senior citizens.  They painted, planted, shoveled, and entertained all around our communities.

Most dramatically though, they reached out to the victims of the Haitian earthquake.  Through an organization known as Meals from the Heartland, and your extremely generous donations the LS students bagged and boxed 52,000 meals to send to Haiti.  52,000 Haitians will enjoy a nutritious meal, this represents 100 meals for every person in our school community.   That required nearly $7000 of donations to pay for dried vegetables, protein powder, rice and vitamins from Lynnville-Sully patrons.  Meals from the Heartland provided the equipment and system to package these meals, and the students and staff manned 10 work stations for nearly 4 hours.  All this for fellow human beings we'll never know.  For a people who've witnessed 4% of their county's population perish in a natural disaster.  This is good work that our students have done.  Ultimately, its also good lessons that a few hundred students in Iowa can have a global impact with a few hours of volunteerism.

Thanks Lynnville-Sully, for all you do to improve our world, both locally and globally.